When I lived in Breckenridge, the diviest dive bar in town was a ramshackle, crooked old barn (it was, literally, an old barn, and it was, literally crooked. If you stood across the street and face it, the entire building had a noticeable list.) called Seamus O'Toole's. It was dark, it smelled bad, the regulars had about seven teeth between them, and it was one of two bars in town where you could go in during ski season and not have to be polite to tourists.
The downside of living in a town whose economic engine is powered by tourism is that you have to interact with tourists. At least in a ski town you only have to do it for four or five months of the year.
Thus, Seamus's.
On Friday nights during happy hour, the bar would be crowded with locals pounding Coors Lights (to drink aything else was heresy), until about 7:30. Around that time, a guy on a giant Harley would roar up to the bar, stroll in, look around, and stroll back out. Ever so slowly, the regulars and locals would follow him out the door, like an ebb tide, until you noticed that the bar was practically empty.
That guy, come "up the hill" on his hog, was of course their dealer. Duh. It took me a few visits to realize.this.
Now I read this -- that poky (in the off season), pop 3000 Breckenridge might legalize pot!
Think of the boom this would bring to their economy. It could be locally grown (though I don't know if marijuana will grow at 9500 feet), packaged, and taxed. Breckenridge would become a little American Amsterdam.
When I was there Breck had the biggest halfpipe in the world; legalizing pot would make it even more of a snowboarders' mecca. Not to mention a year-round destination or relocation spot for people who need medical marijuana to treat their "anxiety" yet who don't want to live in the Land of Douchebaggery (aka LA).
I may need to move back, even though sadly, Seamus's was sold in 2002 to some local community theater group.
Humming John Denver now...
4 comments:
I used to play in a band that did Saemus O'Toole's three times a year. The guy on the Harley-Oh boy. I slept on his floor sometimes. Was always a big revolver sitting on the breakfast bar to pre-empt any big ideas somebody might get.
Fell asleep inside the bar once and woke up locked inside! I had crawled into a corner of the stage to get 40 winks while the guys shot pool after hours. They figured I walked to the band house or something and left without me. I just started a pot of coffee when I woke up and the bartender who opened later was glad it was me who got locked inside because everybody knew I was the one in the band who didn't drink. Speaking of the band house, theirs used to be notorious amoung bands on that circuit as the worst band house of all but that was before my time. The one they had when I was playing there was pretty nice.
On one return visit I asked a barmaid how her husband was and she told me he was on house arrest and pointed to a window of a second floor apartment across the street from the place. "See that window?" she said. "Cops were staked out in there taking pictures of everybody." Her husband and some others had been busted. That reinforced my worry that a band member would be a target for cops. If they pinched a band member for possession it would be easy to pressure him for names with the promise of letting him go in exchange because he wouldn't want to be locked up when it was time to go on to the next gig. Ihat didn't stop my from scoring, though.
Okay, a month and no update. What do I have to do, stand under the fire escape playing a ukelele?
I would pay you for that, Archer.
i used to work for a water purification company in silverthorne and sometimes had to make the water better after the health dept visited seamus'. before i left summit co i heard seamus moved to fla after selling the bar, we could use an o'tooles beachside.
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